Midnight Sun (The Twilight Saga #5) - Stephenie Meyer Page 0,256

was on the door handle.

This road was much rougher than the last. I hit a rut that had the Jeep jolting out of our lane. As I worked to control the vehicle, suddenly the tracker’s voice was there.

… must have a place close…

“Go,” I snarled.

We all three threw ourselves out of the speeding Jeep.

I landed on the balls of my feet, and I was sprinting toward the sound of the tracker’s thoughts before the others had got their balance.

Oh ho, a trap after all!

The tracker did not sound either upset or frightened by the sudden reversal in roles. He was still having fun.

I pushed myself, blurring through the trees we’d just driven past. I could hear Carlisle and Emmett behind me, Emmett charging through the underbrush like a rhinoceros. His louder attack might cover some of the sounds of my own. Maybe the tracker would think I was farther back than I actually was.

It was a great relief to run, to move under my own propulsion, after the long drive stuck inside the Jeep. It was a relief not to have to rely on road, but just to take the shortest route toward my target.

The tracker was fast, too. It didn’t take long before I was glad I’d given myself six hundred miles to catch him.

He curved west toward the far-distant Pacific as we climbed higher into the eastern edge of the Rockies.

Carlisle and Emmett were falling farther behind. Was that the tracker’s hope? Separate us and take us out one at a time? I was on my guard, waiting for another sudden turnabout. I welcomed the idea of his attack. Part of me was full of fury, another part was just anxious to finish this.

I couldn’t hear his mind—he was slightly out of range—but I could follow his scent easily enough.

His path turned northward.

He ran and I ran. Minutes passed, then hours.

We veered northeast.

I wondered whether he had a plan or was just running aimlessly to throw me off.

I could barely hear Emmett’s charge through the forest. They had to be several miles back now. But I thought I could hear something ahead. The tracker moved quietly, but not silently. I was gaining on him.

And then the noise of his progress was gone completely.

Had he stopped? Was he waiting to attack?

I ran faster, eager to spring his trap.

And then I heard a faraway splash at the same time I crested a snow-dusted ridge that broke off in a steep cliff.

Far below, a deep glacial lake, long and narrow, almost like a river.

Water. Of course.

I wanted to dive after him, but I knew that would give him the advantage. There were miles of bank where he could emerge. I would have to be methodical, which would take time. He had no such impediments.

The slow way was to run the perimeter of the lake, looking for traces of him. I’d have to be careful not to miss his exit. He wouldn’t walk up onto the bank and start running again. He’d try to leap out, to put some distance between the water’s edge and his scent.

The slightly faster way was to split the distance with Emmett and Carlisle; we could cut the perimeter into thirds.

But there was also the fastest way.

Emmett and Carlisle were getting closer. I ran back to Carlisle, my hand stretched out in front of me. It only took him a second to understand what he wanted. He tossed me the phone. I turned again and ran with them, texting Alice.

Tell me which one of us finds the trail.

We reached the overlook of the long lake.

“Emmett,” I breathed almost silently. “You decide to take the south bank from this point and then follow it around to the east. Carlisle, decide to run the north along this bank. I’ll take the far side.”

I pictured it, committed to it, diving into the dark blue water, shooting across to the opposite shore, then running north to meet up with Carlisle at the far tip of the lake.

The phone vibrated silently.

Em, she texted. Southern tip.

I showed them her text, and then handed the phone back to Carlisle. He had a waterproof bag to protect it. I dove, and heard Emmett push off behind me. I held myself straight as a knife, determined to cut into the water with as little sound as possible.

The water was very clear, and just a few degrees warmer than freezing. I swam several yards below the surface, invisible in the night. I could make out the sound